Posts Tagged → information
Where is the Manual Override lever?
A friend of mine has a beautiful home filled up with high technology gadgets. Everything in the house is automated, including opening and closing toilet seats, lights, music, the kitchen wine rack, you name it; if it can be programmed to happen or turn on or off when a person enters or exits the room or uses the potty, he has it set.
First time I encountered this was at a party. It was funny and entertaining. I would experience something newfangled and robotic, comment on it, compliment my friend for his ingenuity, and then retreat to the pool deck or his living room to talk with a human being.
Then a year later he generously hosted me as a guest for a weekend as I ran for state senate, while he and his family were away. Every time I stepped into the kitchen, lights would turn on, the fridge would light up, or automatically open if I approached it, same with the coffee maker, etc. When the shower was turned on, music started.
No matter what I wanted to do, or needed to do, or possibly indicated a desire to do, the automated electronics tried to anticipate me and do it for me. Even the toilet paper dispenser was set to go, maybe not enough, but it tried to provide. Everything but the final act was done by the toilet paper dispenser, but then the guest room toilet also had a bidet feature, which if you are into that, can work wonders if set on “fire hose high.”
After that weekend, I swore I would try to avoid automation as much as possible the rest of my life. It unnerved me, because almost as frequently as the robotics were correct, they were then incorrect, and then annoying. Put another way, the first hour of that is Golly! amusing. The second hour is provocative, as the human mind tries to find ways to work around the now-annoying robots. After that, one becomes tired of the novelty, and a bit alarmed by all of the automated activity that occurs no matter which room one enters into, and what one really wants.
And there is no manual override.
Several years ago I made the mistake of buying a newfangled clothes washing machine. Our old one died, and I had run out of fixes for it. I could not find its two-way electric motor, used, even on eBay, and so it went out into the world of recycling.
Looking for that old machine’s fierce old-fashioned tear-your-arm-off churn of the washing machines we all grew up with, I accepted the salesman’s representation that this new machine could do that, if I programmed it to do it. And Lordy but does it have buttons for programming! It even can link up with your smart phone and be run from that, if you download that manufacturer’s spyware app.
I figured that with all of these sophisticated buttons and options, the machine could probably be programmed to write Shakespeare sonnets, much less really, really clean our family’s clothing.
Nope.
Turns out that the machine has programming for a high efficiency absence of cleaning water set at cold, and shame-on-you low efficiency absence of cleaning water, set at tepid, with the same weak, flaccid, slow, low-energy half-turn of the cleaning rotor as happens with the high-efficiency choice. And the churny-rotor thingy is a superior action to the lift-and-flop motion the machine is set to do from the factory.
Any mistake in trying to run a wash and then stopping it requires the machine to drain out all of the wash water and then start all over again. Which is a waste of water, and whatever electricity it used, and is usually an unnecessary step.
With this new, expensive, high tech clothes washing machine, you are stuck with a set of poor or poorer choices in how to maybe clean your clothes. The machine was designed and programmed by people who care more about energy and water efficiency than actually cleaning clothes.
Note to clothes washer manufacturers: We consumers buy clothes washers because we want our clothes to get clean, however that is done, whatever it takes, at whatever amounts and temperatures of water are needed, and with whatever rotor churn power is needed to knock the caked dirt off of my work clothes. We don’t want high efficiency water and electrictity use for anything other than thoroughly cleaning our clothes. And if the high efficiency settings don’t clean clothes, as they usually do not, then we want a choice in setting the machine to really kick ass and do what clothes washers are supposed to do: Clean. Really, really, super clean. At whatever cost in water and electricity.
And no, there is no manual override for this fancy washing machine. You the consumer are given an incomplete set of choices, and by golly, that is what you will learn to like, whether it is likable or not.
Last but not least among the examples of modern thingies needing a manual override, we have the new car belonging to the Princess of Patience. It is a 2026 Toyota Rav4 hybrid, being number four in a progression of RAV4s the Princess of Patience has owned and relied upon, with great enjoyment.
Heh, well, this latest and greatest iteration of the tried and true and much favored RAV4 inspires our gentle, soft spoken, always well considered Princess of Patience to say things like “I hate this %*$#@! thing. I want to set it on fire and leave it on the side of the road!”
Now, what could inspire such a harsh reaction to something so wonderfully modern and reliable as her new car? In a word: Technological automation.
This damned RAV4 has more technology than a fighter jet, and more automation than the Toyota car factory that built it. The technology is overwhelming, unnecessary, superfluous, and impossible to control, unless one has a degree in computer programming. The little turny knobs we used for the past seventy years for selecting radio stations and interior temperatures worked, ya know. Simple solution, hard to break, easy to tune. Not the new car technology! It is all touch screen, which is hard to see, inelegant, and clumsy.
This RAV4 tries to grab and pull into its computer motherboard every electronic gadget and phone that passes within fifty feet of it, then downloading and storing everything digital on said gadget and phone (to then download to Toyota so the car company can then sell and monetize our most personal information). This car also has every kind of Nanny pseudo-safety feature automatically built in that a weenie sheltered mama’s boy could ever dream up.
The car beeps and chimes and dings if you swerve one inch into the road dividing line. It will also automatically swerve away from any car or dividing line it believes you have mistakenly turned towards, even if you are swerving to avoid a deer standing in the middle of the road, but end up hitting the deer instead, because of the car’s automated correction system.
Ditto for coming anywhere near another vehicle while driving or parking. Last week my left wrist was nearly broken because of the force it hit the steering wheel with, as the car automatically and harshly jammed on the brakes to “save” us from hitting the rear end of a car that was turning into an alley in a congested urban area. We were plenty far enough away from the other car’s bumper, but to the RAV4, we nearly died, and it saved us.
Whoever programmed this car’s automated sensors and driving instructions obviously never drove in Brooklyn, New York, where urban combat driving is the norm and clearances between moving and parked vehicles and with buildings and humans are all measured in tenths of inches. To everyone’s satisfaction. But not to this car!
If I were to try to drive this 2026 RAV4 in a place like Brooklyn, I would leave a trail of destruction and mayhem behind me, on account of the automated driving and “safe reaction” nanny settings programmed into the car. The car would swerve to avoid one perceived obstacle, and then take out two grandmas, a stroller, and a partridge in a pear tree in one full swoop, just to stop me from maybe hitting something. All while the damned thing scans my eyeballs and my brain for what music I might possibly want to listen to at that second.
Folks, there is just too damned much technology and automation and useless gee-whiz gizmos in everything we use. It is all working against us, against our interests, our choices, against our humanity. It is a reflection not of us and our choices, but of the weak and highly risk-averse fairies who program these things before we start using them. And there is no manual override for any of it.
Not everything analog is bad, and hardly everything digital is good. The deeper we go into digital everything, the more we want some of that old analog world back. It was easier, more user friendly, did more with less, easier to maintain, lasted longer and broke a lot lot less than the digital crap.
You want a tamper resistant and theft-proof vehicle, that does what you tell it to do, when you want it? Get a manual stick shift. That is what I want in my next pickup truck, if only to be able to regularly give Third Gear to The Man.
Matt Gaetz nomination is last test of MSM
We are witnessing right now the last real gasp of the evil mainstream media aka the corporate media aka the legacy media, whose unhealthy grip on information and thus on political outcomes has been hugely damaged this election year.
One naturally thinks the MSM might actually be suffering from insufficient market satisfaction, and be headed for a well deserved fall and comeuppance. After all, the MSM lies appeared to fall on very few ears this year. Trump won, despite the constant MSM lies, hoaxes, conspiracy theories etc.
A test of the MSM’s health is presented by the nomination of Congressman Matt Gaetz, a powerful voice for government transparency and accountability.
A routine faux “scandal” has been drummed up by DC Beltway banditos and their MSM enablers against one of the very few candidates for Attorney General who could actually do the work needed to Clorox out the DOJ, FBI, BATF et al, Matt Gaetz, late of the US Congress.
This is the same kind of attack that was used successfully against Judge Roy Moore in Alabama six years ago, successfully against Gen. Michael Flynn eight years ago, unsuccessfully against Justice Brett Kavanaugh five years ago, successfully against Lt. Governor Mark Robinson in North Carolina two weeks ago, and against many many other Republicans over the years.
The attack has just two ingredients: A politically partisan fake news source like CNN or the New York Times, and usually a salacious supposed sex story involving a Republican. A bonus if there has been some sort of formal “investigation,” which always turns out to be 100% BS political crap done for the simple reason that it makes the fake allegation look plausible. The salacious sex story does not have to have anything behind it, just allegations of “an investigation.”
Just having a fake allegation against a candidate is supposed to drive them from the public square and destroy their political career. In the not distant past, merely saying that Matt Gaetz was “investigated” would have normally sent the longtime MSM-abused and highly conditioned GOP running for cover, tossing nominees and candidates overboard right and left.
But we are thankfully living in different times, and everyone now knows what this disgusting game is about. We all know that the MSM lie lie lie and lie some more, and that they have zero credibility and should be reviled, shunned, and hated for their evilness. No one with a brain in their head trusts The New York Times.
Matt Gaetz was only “investigated” by a corrupt DOJ that is thankfully coming to a close, because he has been a strong critic of this corrupt DOJ. See how that works? Just more weaponization of the federal government against its critics, not what America was supposed to be about. Matt Gaetz didn’t do anything wrong, but the DOJ staff sure did.
So if President Trump stands strong and keeps Matt Gaetz as his nominee to the Attorney General position, the MSM are defeated. They will have been unable to stop Gaetz’s nomination. And even better will be if Matt Gaetz is confirmed as AG. If he has to be a recess appointee, so be it. Gaetz will still bring the old tyme religion that American politics needs oh so badly, and he will also be driving a wooden stake through the MSM vampire’s heart once and for all.
UPDATE: Matt Gaetz has withdrawn as nominee for AG, damnit. Infuriating. Republicans feel shame for the dumbest crap, and Republican voters punish Republican candidates for the smallest of infractions. I am so tired of this. Republicans must grow a thicker skin, a greater devotion to implementing their policy goals, and simply ignore the Leftist mainstream media and their pet Democrat Party, both of which have zero shame about anything no matter how egregious e.g. Endless brazen lying, Democrat murder sprees (many Clinton victims like Seth Rich), mass child sex trafficking from 2021-present, bribery, theft, etc etc etc. SO FRUSTRATING.
Conspiracy theory that can’t be true
Talk about a real, genuine conspiracy theory – a significant number of Americans who oppose President Donald Trump are actually saying publicly that his near-assassination was staged by Trump himself. To garner sympathy. For real.
What is the operational definition of this alleged conspiracy? How exactly did it happen? What are the actual working parts to the conspiracy?
Here is what we know: The shooter is dead, Corey Comperatore is dead, James Copenhaver and David Dutch are both critically injured. President Trump went from speaking live on TV with no wounds to suddenly bleeding, falling to the ground, and getting back up with blood streaming across his face, all in a few seconds.
You conspiracy theorists are saying that this attempted assassination is fake, staged, a lie, and yet you can’t explain the factual nuts and bolts of how it happened….
While on a regular good day the political Left suffers from terrible moods, an addiction to bad information, and black hate for their political opponents, now cheering and mocking the assassination attempt, mocking Trump’s wound, mocking the wounded and murdered audience members, and concocting a bizarre conspiracy theory to assauge one’s own blinding hate is a low spot in the annals of human politics. No wonder the political Left engages in so much political violence; their heads are brimming with hateful ideas and the violent images and desires that naturally flow from them.
Coming up with a physically impossible conspiracy theory is an embarassing statement about the demented frame of mind of too many Americans. I won’t say it’s all or even a majority of registered Democrats, but let’s be honest, a sizeable proportion of them have been so wound up and tuned up they willingly let their hateful thinking tangle up the wiring in their brains. Remember, registered Democrats, hate is a not a family value nor is it a proper component of our national political dialogue.
Here are the facts on the ground. How do you twist them into a believable conspiracy theory? Go! Do it! You are a crazy person!
The media industrial complex is trying to suppress these iconic photos of a wounded and defiant Trump
Fake News John Micek leaves fake news “Patriot News” to create more Fake News
He is no “journalist.” Media fraud John Micek leaves political cover of old Patriot News, becomes publicly visible political propagandist
Patriot News devotes 45% of its editorial page to a Vogue-worthy celebrity photo of anti-American US Rep. Nancy Pelosi. And the media wonders why regular Americans have lost faith in the legacy media
Ever since fake news purveyor John Micek arrived at the Patriot News (now pennlive.com) about eight years ago (he had some role there before taking on the editorial page), the paper went from liberal-lean to all-out 24/7 partisan propaganda. The opinion page that Micek ran became a seething cauldron of popular notions of political correctness. Micek’s opinion page became an Exhibit A of how the establishment legacy media maintains a constant saturating Blitzkrieg barrage of intellectual garbage on trusting, good-natured Americans, long used to sitting down to read “the paper” after a day’s work.
Micek made national news several years ago by peremptorily banning all anti-gay-marriage opinions from being published on the Patriot News opinion page. When Micek appeared on national television shows where he was simply questioned about his censorious practices and intellectual dishonesty, he became a deer in the headlights. He literally could not find the words to articulate a why to his censorship. Not in a professional way. The guy was exposed as a puppet master, not a man of letters, as would be expected of a “highly educated, highly experienced media expert.” Media experts like Micek have been trained as Fascist mini Stalins, not as thinkers.
My own exposure to Micek was what free-thinkers have come to expect from official media censors across the nation in recent years. I have submitted pro-Constitution opinion pieces to the Patriot News, where Micek would eventually get around to accepting them. Weeks after the issue had left the headlines. But Micek wouldn’t just delay them, he would edit out the strongest parts of my op-eds, then post the essays digitally for about 15 minutes, and then pull them off of the pennlive.com editorial page. So he could truthfully say that he had technically published the letters, but unless a reader went searching for them using the search function on the website, they would not be visible as one scrolled down through past posts. It was a sleight-of-hand trick.
So let’s be honest about Micek: He is completely dishonest. As an editor, anyhow. Not that an honest, objective reader would be surprised at this. After all, Micek has done his misdeeds up front and in public view, where he has long misrepresented himself as a “journalist,” and therefore as a fair-minded arbiter of fact and truth, when he is so obviously the opposite.
Now John Micek has left pennlive.com to join another up-front fake news start-up. There, he will be able to more freely purvey his anti-America PC garbage and nonsense; his censorious ways will become de facto “the norm” for official media discussions. Micek is doing this to even further control the political and social narrative, to limit and shape the information and language available to curious people, and thereby, he hopes, to artificially control and shape the way Americans think about public policy issues.
John Micek embodies pretty much everything honest, patriotic Americans despise about liberals. He is a weak-kneed manipulative weasel with a feminized pseudo-intellectual affectation who hates America as it was founded, but who nonetheless enjoys and relies upon the Constitutional rights he is trying to destroy for everyone else.
If bowties were at all “in” today, Micek would festoon his entire body in them. Mister Peabody Knowitall Do-Good has now gone on to do more bad things, more often, more publicly. This move is about the most honest thing he has ever done in his career, as the cat is finally out of the bag and he is openly admitting he has been a fake news propagandist the entire time.
Congratulations, John.
Digital virtual reality arrives in old school politics; use it
Across America establishment politicians in both parties are falling like leaves from a tree in the Fall.
Retirements forced by grassroots voter frustration with the ossified, petrified, failed and always self-serving “management” style of people who were elected to actually lead.
Leadership means taking risks and making sacrifices. Very few elected officials today do either of these, instead shape-shifting from public leader to private sultan.
Enter the digital age.
Digital information has exposed these elected sultans for the self-enriching failures they are, and informed more and more voters about just how bad our national situation is, how badly we citizens have been abandoned by the people we elected to represent us.
The political establishment is inflexible, playing by old rules that do not work well in this modern digital age. This establishment includes the legacy media, AKA the establishment media or mainstream media. Or, the “drive-by” media, as one radio talk show host accurately calls them.
The mainstream media is so badly ossified that it is now openly allied with one political party, even going so far as to openly act against the most basic interests of the American citizenry they are supposed to inform. Now, the mainstream media is lying constantly every day, simply trying to create political and cultural narratives that advance their agenda, rather than reporting facts. They also actively suppress facts that are contrary to their narratives.
The only way the will of The People can be gained and used for political gains is through misleading them\us.
But today, information now flies at the speed of light, to hand held phones and internet browsers all over the world. Information that is contrary to the establishment media’s false narratives is getting around both the party and media blockades.
If you are tired of politics and political battles being waged in both main political parties today, be glad we are not seeing it play out the way these differences have done over history: Bloody heads on pikes and grieving families echo throughout history, widespread destruction, famine.
Being “tired” of politics is a huge luxury we enjoy in a stable world and its biggest superpower, America. So don’t be a weenie, and don’t cop out. Stay in the battle, such as it is, and play your role as a free citizen. Be thankful you are not facing a line of bayonets, as in the past.
Every active citizen is needed and each one as a part-time activist makes a huge difference, and helps advance the cause of Liberty. All you need is your smart phone and about one hour a day to help advance your own interests more than any elected official can, or will.
Texas Oil & Gas Companies Gone Wild – Part 1
Imagine my disgust and fury when out with my son on our hunting camp the other day we discovered four fresh survey stakes with gobs of ribbons placed on our property. No one had permission to enter our heavily posted, heavily surveyed property that adjoins PA State Forest.
Yes, I had been in discussion with a Texas-based company to come and explore the property, but we had signed nothing and they were in the process of negotiating.
So, finding the four stakes, which marked planned drilling and blasting locations, strategically placed around the property, but far enough away from the cabin that we were less likely to find them, conjured up the worst stories we have heard and seen about rogue Texas oil companies that trample on private property rights.
Luckily, I wasn’t present when the “surveyors” trespassed on our property. Had I encountered them, I would have held them at gunpoint until the State Police arrived to cite them for trespass. And I can tell you from personal experience, confronting trespassers out in the woods is uncomfortable and potentially explosive. Unless the trespasser does everything the landowner legally demands, which is a lot, the potential for gun fire is extremely high. People who defiantly trespass are probably violent, too. So the landowner has to be aggressive and controlling, ready to defend himself at any second.
I contacted the company, and their representative told me that — no kidding — my boundary is wrong and he will be happy to have a surveyor come out and fix it.
I am not lying about this. He actually said that.
Our boundary with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been surveyed by both my surveyors and the state’s surveyors, many times. It is clearly marked and has Posted No Trespassing signs along it, closely spaced so that no one can say they didn’t see them.
Interestingly, their stakes were conveniently placed so that they were least likely to be found. And whoever placed them had to walk past a bunch of big yellow Posted signs.
I am preparing the civil lawsuit and the criminal complaint as I write this, and hopefully the company will make good, so I don’t have to rub their thieving name in the dirt.
See, they stand to make a lot of money by finding out what is under my property, but they don’t want to work with me on it, so they tried to steal the information, instead.
And it is sad, because I love Texas.